In rack and pinion steering, commonly used in passenger cars, e.g., as shown in British Pat. No. 2,037,931A of July 16, 1980 a rack is spring biased against a steering spindle pinion. Such arrangement suffices to maintain constant tooth engagement between rack and pinion, avoiding clattering noises. Also, the arrangement effects damping of axial vibration of the rack and thus avoids torsional oscillation of the steering spindle. Such oscillations cause imprecise steering due to so called steering wheel shimmy, an effect occurring at certain speeds caused by movement of unbalanced mass. The almost undamped shimmy effect makes for steering discomfort to the driver of the vehicle and also causes increased wear of the steering elements. Ordinarily, to correct such a condition, would be obvious to merely increase the spring pressure of the rack against the pinion by suitable adjustments. However, such expedient is impractical because the increase of frictional engagement between the meshed teeth of rack and pinion on unworn tooth areas would cause much too stiff steering in addition to increased tooth wear.